The Bahrain All-Share Index lost 0.35 per cent to reach 1,466.43 points on Sunday, July 24. Bahrain Telecom, known as Batelco, fell 1.60 per cent to BD0.374. Earlier in the day, the first telecom company in the kingdom said that, for the first six months of the year, the group recorded a net profit of BD24.9 million ($66.0 million), “representing a slight decrease of 1 per cent year on year, and a 28 per cent decrease since last quarter”.

Last week, Gulf Daily News reported a British court had ordered a worldwide freeze on assets of Batelco’s former Indian investment partner, Siva Limited, and its Chairman, Chinnakannan Sivasankaran. The Bahrain-based telecoms group said that its fully owned subsidiary, Batelco Millennium India Co (BMIC), had approached the High Court of Justice, Queen’s Bench Division, in the UK on July 16 saying the defendants were in breach of the court’s ruling of June 12 awarding it $212m.